Do you use a rangefinder or eyeball your distance?

[buckpillar]

I been playing for 43yrs and find that I play my best when I don't use any modern technology, to many times I see younger players whip out a rangefinder or their phone to get a yardage.

What do you think? Does it actually help you in the grand scheme of things? 

[GolfSpy_APH]

I can use my eyes as a general guide and do okay. However there is little doubt in my mind that taking the 10 seconds to shoot the flag or front or back of the green has helped my game immensely. The course I play are decent with marker placement, but due to angles and large greens distances can be off as much as 20 yards with how things are playing. That's a pretty big guess and the rangefinder eliminates that.

I will say I am practice and more than half the time I shoot the flag and my Ball ahead of time do I am walking up to the ball with the club I need in hand.

[Preeway]

I think there are times where it’s helpful but it’s mostly just something I use because it’s the newest thing. There are times on courses with big doglegs that I find it very helpful because it can be tricky getting the yardage from the markers in the fairway. I use GPS mostly. 

[GolfSpy_BNG]

I can go either way. When playing at my home course I can normally get close enough with my eyes as I have played the course forever. When I go to new courses that’s where the Voice Caddie SL2 rangefinder/GPS comes in handy. The 10-15 seconds it takes to shoot a flag is worth it for me. 

[GolfSpy_KFT]

I use a combination of GPS with Arccos and a rangefinder. There are times where I do not trust the distance Arccos gives me on my watch so I will shoot a flag. 

[Paco Chan]

This may be less relevant to folks in North American and Europe. Over here in Asia, I've found that the distance markers (100/150/200) at the sides of the fairway are often off by +/- 10m. It is also rare to have in-fairway markers (e.g. on sprinkler heads).

Things like GPS are awesome and that database is definitely growing. However, there are still a surprising number of courses that haven't been mapped and thus you can't use GPS. That's where a rangefinder would come in.

Edited September 17, 2023 by Paco Chan

[GolfSpy_BEN]

I use a combination of a Shotscope X5 for shot tracking/gps and a Shotscope Pro L2 for exact distances under 150 yds. Anything over 150 yds and center of the green yardage is all I want.

[TJ Hall]

Longer shots or being way off line (ie, coming across from another fairway) I like to have the rangefinder.  Inside 100 yards, will generally go off feel.  Have played many courses that aren’t marked very well that makes it nearly impossible to judge distance without a rangefinder.

[funkyjudge]

14 hours ago, buckpillar said:

I been playing for 43yrs and find that I play my best when I don't use any modern technology, to many times I see younger players whip out a rangefinder or their phone to get a yardage.

What do you think? Does it actually help you in the grand scheme of things? 

I wear a Garmin GPS watch and refer to it for distances to the front, middle and back of the greens as well as to hazards, bunkers, etc. There is a PrecisionPro laser rangefinder in one of the pockets of my push cart bag, but I rarely (and I mean EXTREMELY rarely) pull it out to shoot a distance on the golf course. In my last six to eight rounds of golf over the last month or so, I don’t think that I have pulled out the rangefinder one time.

The only time that I find it necessary to use the rangefinder is when there is a severe elevation change or a semi-blind shot where I can only see the top of the flag, or when I want to get a distance to a tree or the edge of a water hazard that is not clearly shown on my GPS watch.

Since the use of the slope function is strictly prohibited in competitive play, I think that it is much better to be able to estimate accurately how much of an effect that the elevation change between you and your target will have on your shot and select your club accordingly. Add or subtract from this (or add to to it) the effect that a front or back pin will have on your shot, and you are good to go.

I absolutely hate it when a golfer finds it necessary to shoot every distance with his rangefinder two or three times (not just to flags and hazards, but also to every tree, bunker, bush, etc.). This is one of the primary reasons for agonizingly slow pace of play in golf.

Edited September 18, 2023 by funkyjudge
Correction

[silver & black]

I play my home course with no yardage measuring device/s... after 25 years of playing there, I just know what to hit.

When on other courses, I use the 

'free caddy' app on my phone for front, center,  back distance to the green. Anything more accurate than that is wasted on me, as I'm just not good enough to use any more info. 

Edited September 17, 2023 by silver & black

[cbhenri10]

I played my first 15 or so years of golf with no technology whatsoever. A few years ago I couldn't resist anymore and got the Bushnell v5 shift. I love it. I feel like it has really improved my iron play with learning my distances and giving me confidence in club choices. My GIR% has doubled since I started using it. I will say I stop using it inside 90ish yards as I prefer to rely on feel when not hitting full shots

[No3PuttLaLa]

Since I started using Arccos, I have not used my rangefinder. It does a great job giving me my green distances calculating wind, slope, humidity, temp, etc.

As long as you know the pin positions, I think it’s worth its weight in gold. 

[cnosil]

I only use my rangefinder when there is a slope difference to better learn the impact of slope on a shot.   Other than that it is GPS (F/M/B only) to determine distance.  

Does it help?  100% yes.   Much faster and more accurate than finding a course marking and stepping off distances.  I pull it out of my pocket and within 5 seconds I have my distance number.  I don't use a rangefinder because the exact number to the pin isn't really that helpful in most cases.

[Dweed]

I understand the need to know the distance to a target. I also see many people abuse that need to know, which does slow the game down. Some people take 3 or 4 readings, march and get a club, take another reading, I guess the flag must have jumped in the last minute. I use a Swami 6000 which gives me straight line distances. I like the front, middle back yardage aspect. I can't honestly say I'm accurate enough to warrant the use of a range finder. But I am decent enough to know I don't like to guess about distances. I hate doglegs because I have to guess how far I need to hit to clear the corner. Down side to the Swami.

[sirchunksalot]

I use a rangefinder on a lot of approach shots but once I get within chipping distance of the green, it's strictly the eyeballs. I'll also sometimes use the Golfshot app in place of it, I like the fact it gives F/M/B that way I have a general idea of what club to use. 

[russtopherb]

I use a GPS 95% of the time. I’d rather go with a middle of the green reading than the flag. I’ll use a rangefinder to check a hazard or dogleg distance but other than that, it’s GPS. 

[Tom the Golf Nut]

I use a laser for the most part. My course has a lot of dog legs and has very small greens. All the greens are somewhat elevated and going long into any green is trouble. Exact yardage is important.  Measuring how far you can go on a dog leg helps as well. I also have a GPS watch but obviously the laser is more accurate than a front middle back number. 
Here is an example of how small the greens get. This is a par 3 at 150 yards.

Yes you read that correctly (Feet). You have to carry to the green and stop. It’s down hill to the back bunker.

[Shlax]

Using a Garmin Approach S60 watch and having distance measurements definitely improved my game.

I found that my yardage accuracy when I manually place the pin to the front, middle or back of the green on my watch is systematically less than 4-5 yds which is plenty of precision for me.

For shots inside 70-80 yards, I do quickly glance at the GPS reading to make sur that I’m in the right ballpark when planning/setting up my shot but I mostly go with feel instead of going for a certain distance.

While I agree that having distance measurements accurate within a 0.5 yds tolerance would be irrelevant for my game, having a reliable distance measurement to the front, middle and back of the green is now a mandatory part of my routine.

[Limited]

I play with Arccos so I use my phone for yardage. 

[Preeway]

I do think rangefinders are very convenient but I think a reliable gps system is better. I find myself wanting more information than just distance to pin and having a hole layout to look at let’s me know more information like distance to front of the green or distance to carry a hazard. It isn’t easy sometimes to get those yardages with a rangefinder depending on the line of sight. 

[Shapotomous]

I use a laser most of the time.  I know my club yardages pretty well and it helps with the 'in between club' shot yardages for me to know which club, long or short, to go with.  Slope and hazards and pin location play into that long or short decision too.  If the pin or target isnt visible for the laser i use the shotscope h4 that has gps.

[Byrnzee]

I've always been a big fan of knowing the exact yardage and I've been using a Rangefinder and golf GPS on my phone in tandem for years. Even if I'm not precise enough to hit it right on the number, it can help with course management, understanding pin position and getting an idea for slope.

That being said, I typically don't use anything under 80 yards or so. I consider myself a feel player who's pretty good with their hands. When it gets down to those shorter pitch shots, having an exact yardage isn't going to help me. On those shots I like to picture a landing zone and a shot type and try to execute it.

[Parshooter36]

I shoot the flag with my rangefinder on every shot down to 30 yards.  I'm sure I could do with out it 90% of the time, but it's reasuring to know that I have the correct number before I hit.

[cnosil]

2 hours ago, Preeway said:

I find myself wanting more information than just distance to pin and having a hole layout to look at let’s me know more information 

Great point.   The hole layout and some distances are necessary things to have if you are playing on an unfamiliar course.  If you play the same course all the time you probably know all the distances.   When the MGS group was on the Pinehurst trip many of us mentioned struggling with where to hit the ball at Pine Needles because we didn’t have a hole overview.  The other courses had cart GPS units and you knew the distances to he doglegs and hazards,  

[TylorJudd]

I just started using the Bushnell wingman, works really well. The app is intuitive as well. Never had a great range finder, but do have the V3. That works really well too, when it's working....

[Hacker60521]

I’m like a lot of others here.

I use a GPS watch (went from Garmin S60 to ShotScope X5) for general measures and laser for anything less than 150 yards. I like to laser for my approach type shots because I often want to know not just distance to the pin (I still shoot for middle of the green) but also distance to carry hazards etc. Knowing I have a good distance measurement makes me much more confident in club selection.

 I’ll usually eyeball things like chip and pitch shots unless there’s something I don’t like about it.
 

 

[cnosil]

On 9/17/2023 at 6:54 AM, buckpillar said:

I been playing for 43yrs and find that I play my best when I don't use any modern technology,

Would be interested to hear why you play worse with modern technology?  I would agree that how some modern technology is implemented impacts my play, but in general I can see a reason that it impacts your play.  Rangefinders just give you a number that you walk off with yardage markers.  Theoretically same end result just faster when using a rangefinder or GPS unit.  

[tdroma98]

I strictly use a rangefinder (BobLov).  For chipping distances, I generally pace off the distances which determines what club I'll use to chip.  Rangefinder gives me a good indication how I'll play the hole, given the pin position.  Back pin, I won't go flag hunting. Front pin placements can be sucker pins, so I try to add a couple of yards to distance. 

[Paco Chan]

22 hours ago, funkyjudge said:

I absolutely hate it when a golfer finds it necessary to shoot every distance with his rangefinder two or three times (not just to flags and hazards, but also to every tree, bunker, bush, etc.). This is one of the primary reasons for agonizingly slow pace of play in golf.

Reminds me of a friend who is notorious for shooting everything. Luckily, he never holds up play, so no need to fault him. But that doesn't mean we don't give him grief for it.  

(This was posed as a joke - Hanoi, Vietnam, 2022.)

[Preeway]

I have used a rangefinder on a green once. For anyone who has played Landmand, or seen the YT videos about the course you might understand why. I was dead center on one of the greens and I knew I was over 100’ to the hole so I brought my rangefinder just to find out the exact distance. I had a 45 yard putt. I felt very good about that three putt, lol